Ashland Mines finds total freedom in the mix

Back when young producer/DJ Ashland Mines was living in Chicago, he was an arbiter of taste much as he is now, but on a smaller scale. Not yet working under the name Total Freedom, Mines was throwing the occasional party or event, making mix tapes for friends, and otherwise known for turning people on to the greatest records and songs you'd never have heard otherwise that he dug from deep in the Reckless Records vinyl bargain bins. He had yet to step behind the decks even though he had ideas about being a producer, still in the heavy dream phase of his artistic life. What was driving Mines was this: How to create these complex sounds and communal musical experiences outside of his head?

Mines returns to the city of some of his most formative musical development this week, first to play a set with close collaborator, the futuristic r&b vocalist Kelela and then on his own, with a set later in the week at Reggie's. While his star as Total Freedom has risen with Kelela's, Mines' solo work as a producer and DJ over the past few years, is also taking off. When he spoke with the Tribune last week from his home in Los Angeles where he still promotes underground club nights. Mines had just returned from playing a string of DJ dates in cities from Paris to Istanbul. Still, he was hardly fazed.

"I am just trying to make sure I can buy a sandwich every day and pay rent," Mines laughs. "It just means I spend a lot of time on planes."

In the past year Mines has curated a vinyl-only compilation of avant-garde dance and electronic music, and released mixes that were unlike anything you might find. Songs are fragmented and pass like clouds, a snippet of an a cappella Madonna vocal takes on a sinister tone as it repeats over ominous, synthetic sounds. While many DJs and producers are allied with genres such as house, techno or EDM, Mines' work is dynamic and removed from the dance floor's most traditional elements. He'll make you move, but he might also be trying to freak you out and provoke you in equal measure.

"I like it when things are emotionally dramatic and open," explains Mines. "I am not stingy in that category. I like amping things ups. Like going to horror movie levels of dramatic emotionalism. It's something I think people shy away from because they think it's corny and they don't want to experience it on a loud sound system. It's not something you ever get to experience in club music and I like pushing things over the edge in that way. Nasty human scary stuff that takes you to the bottom of human fear."

These sounds and ways of thinking pit Mines against much of contemporary dance music, and certainly the stadium rave trends of EDM, which are about mindless pleasure and booming sounds to match the music's neon aesthetic. For Mines, who was inspired to move to Chicago more than a decade ago after attending an all-ages punk show at the former punk hangout Fireside Bowl, he is inspired by the fundament of DIY culture in "Going for broke, just wild out and the sense that everyone right there around me at the show is with me," he explains.

Still, while Mines work is still on the fringe, he has attracted and fostered some big name, Top 40 fans like Skrillex and a No. 1 hit single-caliber American band who he cannot disclose, as he is working on a remix for the group right now. "For whatever reason (the attention) is not surprising to me. That's just how things work. Things that are exciting and edgy are brought in to help sell things," says Mines, with his trademark bluntness. He laughs, "Given that I go about presenting things in a way no normal person would respond to, perhaps I should be way more shocked."